


Heart to Heart

by oiyukis



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, M/M, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 08:26:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7969555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oiyukis/pseuds/oiyukis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The truth was, Hakuren didn’t know how it had happened. One day he’d woken up with someone else’s heart beating inside his chest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart to Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [orsaverba](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orsaverba/gifts).



> for Chi, who stayed up and talked about monster aus with me. I looked this over about four times to make sure I wasn't continuously mistyping Hakuryuu instead of Hakuyuu. I think I caught them all. 
> 
> I'm tentatively going to start accepting prompts, but it will be less like instant-fill and more like, when I have time if I have time. It will be through tumblr only. 
> 
> **AU Basics;**  
>  Dragons can trade hearts with their mates/soulmates. After, when their partner is thinking about them, their heart glows in their chest. 
> 
>  

Hakuren was only seven when his heart started to glow, soft orange sweeping from his chest half-way down his ribcage. His tutor, the poor exasperated soul that he was, stopped their lesson immediately and carted him across the castle to his father in order to explain the sudden surge of light.

Looking back, Hakuren knew why they were so concerned. Trading hearts with someone was a risky business, and the consequences could be steep. Then, Hakuren hadn’t known what they were so angry about. The truth was, Hakuren didn’t know how it had happened. One day he’d woken up with someone else’s heart beating inside his chest. It hadn’t been a conscious decision, and there had certainly been no magic ritual performed by the light of a blood moon, or whatever the proper process was supposed to be.

Hakuyuu had pulled him aside that first night, pushing concerned fingers against his chest. Their father had a scar there, where he’d once taken out his heart. He didn’t talk about it, but they’d seen it in brief flashes when he would change forms. Hakuren’s chest was smooth and flushed from the summer heat, his stolen heart beating fast under his brother’s palm.

“Whose is it?” Hakuyuu had asked.

“I don’t know,” Hakuren had answered, but as soon as the words were out, he knew them to be a lie.

Their father was more understanding than Hakuren had expected him to be. It made sense, he’d said, that it was Hakuyuu. Though their mother’s belly was round with another child, Hakuren was Hakuyuu’s first sibling. Hakuyuu had loved him before he was born, and Hakuren had never spent more than a few days away from Hakuyuu in the seven years of his young life. There didn’t have to be anything meant by it, their father had said. It was the process they were concerned about, how Hakuren had traded his heart for Hakuyuu’s without even being aware of it.

They never really figured it out. There were rumors once that a dragon in the West had the ability, but they’d never managed to track it down to ask. And now, centuries later, Hakuren was itching to do something about it. Nothing meant by it, their father had said. _Sorry, Dad_ , Hakuren thought. _I think I want it to mean something._

Privately Hakuren wondered if his father would have been surprised at this development. There was so much they’d never known about him, so much they would never learn. Who had he given his heart to? It couldn’t have been Gyokuen, or she wouldn’t have been able to kill him.

But Hakuren could ruminate on that later. Hakuyuu was striding inside the courtyard now, the long robes he wore in his human form billowing behind him like wings. He was alone, faster on the air than the patrol he’d taken with him. He had probably transformed above the clouds and fallen back down to earth to land gracefully outside the castle gates.

“Back so soon?”

Hakuyuu stopped, looking around the room with narrowed eyes before focusing on his brother. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Hakuren laughed. “Have you considered I’m just glad to see you?”

“Yes,” Hakuyuu said, “I could tell.” He made a vague tracing motion over his chest. If Hakuren looked closer, he would be able to see a faint golden glow beneath Hakuyuu’s robes. Hakuren didn’t have to look closer. He already knew what he’d see.

“You left me behind,” Hakuren shrugged. “It’s only natural I worry if I’m not there to help, right?”

“You’re still healing.”

He wasn’t wrong. Hakuren was still struggling to return to his true form, a side effect from an attack they’d fended off a few weeks back. He hadn’t been the only one injured, but it appeared he was still the only one being punished for recklessly engaging the enemy.

“You would have done the same thing if you’d been there,” Hakuren said. He hadn’t been, though. He’d been at the north-watch in the mountains, showing their little brother how far their domain reached. The castle up there would be Hakuryuu’s someday. Until then, it would remain empty and unnamed.

“I would never rush the enemy the way you did.”

“That’s true enough,” Hakuren said, “but that’s not why I was waiting out here for you.”

“Has something happened?”

“No,” Hakuren said. “I just want to talk.”

Hakuyuu narrowed his eyes again. He studied Hakuren for a moment, ultimately choosing not to voice whatever thought had crossed his mind. He moved forward again, waving for Hakuren to follow along. They traveled down the wide hallways together, keeping close to the wall in case anyone decided to rush through without transforming.

Hakuyuu’s chambers were hidden behind three sets of large stone doors and armed guards in the center of the castle. They all snapped to attention as the brothers passed, receiving nods in return. His room itself was large enough for two or three fully matured dragons to roam around, a pit in the center of the room that functioned as a bed.

When he slept in his true form, Hakuyuu liked to curl up along the edges of the pit until he looked like a giant coiled snake. In his human guise, he removed his shoes and walked across the firm bedding, settling against the mountain of different sized pillows. Hakuren spared a moment to muse over the sheer, unfair elegance of his brother. He really could make anything look like a throne.

Hakuren sat on the edge of the depression, stretching his legs out across the mattress. It put a lot of space between them, which was unusual enough to warrant a frown from Hakuyuu, but if the conversation went south, Hakuren would be glad for the separation.

“I’ve been thinking about Dad lately,” Hakuren started. He watched the ceiling, tracking the slow motion of the cosmos that was reflected in its enchanted depths. “When I realized I had your heart, I told him first. I mean, a few days before they told you.

“He asked me if I wanted to tell you. Even then we were pretty sure the whole thing happened without either of us noticing. He thought it might be better if you didn’t know, so I could figure out some way to give it back and we could pretend I had never taken it. And Dad was always right, so I was going to listen to him, but you kept coming to my room to make sure I was okay.”

“I thought you were dying,” Hakuyuu said, a hint of childhood fondness in his tone. “I’d heard all the stories about what happened if someone bad had your heart. I was worried you would die in your sleep if I wasn’t there to watch over you.”

“Yeah, but--” Hakuren scratched absently at the side of his neck. A star was fracturing into a thousand smaller stars above him. “I didn’t know that. So, I didn’t see it that way. I thought maybe you already knew, so that’s what I told Dad.”

Hakuyuu hummed.

“But now I think maybe … things can’t stay the same?” He squinted. “Yeah. I’m not going to be able to say this right, so. Do you want it back?”

“What?”

“I mean, I think I’ve been selfish all these years. If you want it back … well, I don’t know how yet, but I can try to figure that out. It can’t be harder than taking it in the first place, right?”

When Hakuyuu didn’t answer, Hakuren chanced a glance down. He was being stared at, Hakuyuu’s gaze more intense than usual. His face was wiped carefully clean of emotions, the same expression he gave visiting allies he didn’t particularly like, except Hakuren couldn’t read through it this time.

“Did you meet someone?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Do you not want it anymore?”

Hakuren tried to think of a delicate way to put it. He wanted it too much? It was starting to get scary, how much he wanted it? He would be fine with it, really, if Yuu was fine with it, but he didn’t know whether or not that was the case. “It’s not like that either.”

“Why can’t things stay as they are, then?”

“Because I don’t want to hold you back. I mean, if you ever want to give it to someone else.”

“That’s not a concern--”

“Because I don’t want to keep feeling like this if you’re going to want to give it back someday,” Hakuren said. “I don’t want that. So before it gets that far, I want to give it back.”

Hakuyuu’s frown deepened, showing off lines on either side of his mouth that betrayed how many centuries he’d been alive. He wasn’t old, really, but he was starting to look more like their father, especially when he was frustrated.

“Is that your only concern?” he finally asked. “In this hypothetical future, you expect me to want to get rid of it, so you want to cut your losses early?”

“It’s not hypothetical--”

“Fine,” Hakuyuu said abruptly. “I never will, so you can rest easy.”

Hakuren paused, backtracking. “What?”

“I’ll never want to take it back,” Hakuyuu said, “so you can rest easy.”

Hakuren shook his head, frowning. “But how do you _know_ that?’

Hakuyuu gently canted his head. “For the same reason you’re worried about keeping it, I suppose.” He tapped his chest, bringing Hakuren’s attention down. His heart was glowing a bright gold, showing through the dips in his clavicle and up through his neck like he was about to breathe fire.

For the first time, Hakuren was actually embarrassed to see the glow. He swallowed, looking down at his own chest. He could see the orange tinting through the white of his robes. “Well …”

“Come here.”

Hakuren got to his feet, trudging across the bed. He knelt by his brother’s side, feeling a little like he was about to get scolded for stealing sweets from the kitchen before dinner. Hakuyuu watched him for a moment, then sighed. He patted an open space on the mattress closer to himself. Hakuren shuffled forward on his knees, then gave up and collapsed against his side. Hakuyuu exhaled sharply at the sudden barrage of weight—they weren’t as heavy in their human forms, but the weight didn’t just vanish—and rearranged the two of them more comfortably against the pillows.

“I’m never not going to want your heart,” Hakuyuu told him. “I enjoy having it. I know you think you did this on your own, but it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t love you just as much.”

“Like a brother …?”

“Of course,” Hakuyuu said. “You were that first, and that won’t change.”

“Then why—”

“Because I can love you in more than one way,” Hakuyuu said. “And I do. And so do you.”

Hakuren grumbled half-heartedly, leaning against Hakuyuu’s side. He was warm, his heart sending waves of heat through his chest with each pump. Hakuren’s heart, beating inside him.

“Besides,” Hakuyuu said, tone airy, “we would hardly be the first of our kind to, ah, keep it in the family.”

“Gross.”

“I don’t think you can say that.”

“Yeah, probably not,” Hakuren laughed. He glanced up through his eyelashes, pleased to find Hakuyuu smiling down at him. “Okay. I guess I can keep your heart.”

“I’m honored.”

“And you’d better take care of mine.”

“Haven’t I always?”

Hakuren snorted, shoving Hakuyuu lightly. He settled back down, tossing his ankle over Hakuyuu’s. “Yeah,” he said. “You always have.”

 

  

 

 

 


End file.
